


Into the Unknown

by Burgie



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/F, Miqo'te WoL, female WoL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21883066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Yes, like the song from Frozen 2. Minfilia reflects on how her life has changed through the years.
Relationships: Minfilia Warde/Warrior of Light
Kudos: 4





	Into the Unknown

It wasn’t often that Minfilia thought about adventure. Or at least, she hadn’t thought about it very much at all since she’d been a very young girl. Before the Calamity. Before the loss of her father. Before her world had come crashing down around her, literally, and she’d lost everything that she’d ever known. She had gained new family, though, of course. Thancred was both a brother and father figure to her, as ludicrous as anyone else might find the idea. That idea was as outrageous as the thought of a former dancing girl becoming a maternal figure. And yet, F’lhaminn had swapped her scraps of clothing for more maternal clothes once she’d taken on the child, especially after the Calamity, as Minfilia (then Ascilia, Thancred had gifted her the new name) had grown up far faster than she would have liked.

When she’d first come here, Minfilia had almost longed for the life of adventure. Being stuck in the Solar, appointed Antecedent, confined to the Waking Sands, had been… stifling. But it was also safe, here. Especially after news of F’lhaminn’s supposed death had reached her ears, sending her straight back into mourning, throwing herself into her work, trying to hide her pain behind doing Hydaelyn’s good work.

And she’d been okay with being stuck here. This was her purpose and she’d be safe, she was too important to risk losing. Even as part of her railed against this injustice, wanting to do more, to fight. She’d never fought, not really. Unless one counted a few thrown punches, the self-defense that Thancred had taught her with the odd knife or dagger. And she could swing a pickaxe pretty well. But Minfilia was… the Antecedent, the one who gathered those with the Echo to her, guiding and protecting Hydaelyn’s champions.

And she was okay with that.

Until a girl with fire in her eyes and the spark of magic deep within her had been picked up by Thancred and brought before her. A young woman with the fire that Minfilia had once seen inside herself. And the spark had been relit.

She’d tried to deny it, at first, to quench it. This siren song of desire, of wanting to be more, of wanting to take this girl on dates, to just be- hells, to be normal. She’d denied it until tears filled her eyes, until her frustrated wanting had driven her back out to Thanalan, to swing pickaxe and sledgehammer at outcrop and slab alike, to take her frustrations out on the stones until a pile of ore had been amassed. And the money had gone to the Scions, of course. Because they needed it.

And the fire, the need, had died down a little. Until the Imperial troops had stormed the Waking Sands, led by one Livia sas Junis. That fire had filled her, then, as she’d faced Livia, looking her in the face, fingers ever close to the small knife she had for protection hanging from her skirt. That fire had burned bright within her, eclipsing even her worry for those currently on their way back from facing Titan. As the bullet had thudded into the wall behind her, she’d barely even flinched, such was her resolve.

It had kept her strong even when she and a few of the other Scions had been taken to the Castrum. But more than that- her faith in her, in Veronyka, to save the day as she always did. Even as a large part of Minfilia wished that she could save the day herself. Just once.

Perhaps a trace of that spark had remained after her imprisonment, though. Something had urged her to say those words to Veronyka, after all, to draw out the truth of why Veronyka had been acting so oddly around her lately. And at last, she’d allowed herself to leave the Waking Sands, seeing dates as a very valid excuse. She’d seen more of Eorzea since dating Veronyka than she had in weeks. From the solitude of the Forgotten Springs to the far reaches of La Noscea, every sandy beach that bordered the land, every secret swimming hole, the secret hot springs, hidden caves that Minfilia had once explored as a young girl looking for precious stones.

And so, when Leviathan had reared his ugly head (quite literally) in the ocean off the coast of La Noscea, Minfilia hadn’t even hesitated.

“I would go with you,” Minfilia said, her hand covering Veronyka’s.

“Really?” Veronyka asked, her tail swaying behind her in excitement as a brilliant grin had graced her lips. Gods, how Minfilia could drown in that smile.

“Of course,” Minfilia said, squeezing her hand a little tighter. “I can’t let you have all the fun now, can I?” Veronyka looked like she could just about burst with excitement, and Minfilia wasn’t surprised at all when Veronyka pulled her in for a tight hug, kissing her with the fire that Minfilia knew burned within. She remembered a time when she’d once feared thaumaturges, and now she was dating a black mage. But she always had believed that one could not judge a book by its cover, nor could one judge an entire group of people based on one person’s actions. Was that not her reasoning behind wanting the beast tribes to work with Eorzea? Though of course the leaders wouldn’t have a bar of it. Given the past and the primals, Minfilia could understand but… why were people so afraid of the unknown, of trying?

“Are you certain?” Thancred asked, concern etched across his brow. “If a primal truly is being summoned, it could be…”

“But of course,” said Minfilia, pale blue eyes flashing with that spark that had been hidden within for so long. Drawn out by the skilled fingers of a black mage who hadn’t even tried, who’d wanted nothing more than happiness, than love, and had given Minfilia more life in the past few seasons than she’d had her entire life since the Calamity.

But even before that, part of Minfilia had hoped that someone out there had the same gift as her, the gift of the Echo. And finding out that Veronyka shared that gift, the ability to see visions of the past? It had been like coming home, like a part of her finally made sense after so long. Becoming a couple after that had only been natural, really.

“Then I must insist on coming with you as your bodyguard,” Thancred said. Veronyka gave a playful hiss of offense, her tail bushing behind her.

“Aren’t I good enough?” Veronyka asked, a smile on her lips as her tail lashed behind her.

“He just wants to coddle me,” said Minfilia with a roll of her eyes and a smile on her own lips. “Fine, Thancred, I suppose you can accompany me as my bodyguard. Maidens do love a father figure, after all.” It wouldn’t be the first time that Thancred had been the butt of a joke, but his shrug said that he was used to it. Glad she was to see that Lahabrea hadn’t affected him too poorly. That in itself should have been a reason to stay here where it was safe, but…

Not even almost being attacked by a sahagin had shaken Minfilia’s resolve, her desire for adventure, now that she’d given into it. If anything, it had only strengthened it. Hydaelyn would protect her, as She protected her chosen. Minfilia had to believe that. And… there was that ever-present worry in the back of her mind, the worry that Hydaelyn might cash in on that debt at any moment.

But it had been worth it. For Veronyka. For that siren song that she’d followed to her true love, her true north, the one so like her that her heart purely sang with it.

And the look on Veronyka’s face when Minfilia showed up outside of the Warrens, clad in a warm magenta coat… it made it worth trudging through the snow, avoiding vilekin and trying to follow Stormy’s tracks through the snow.

It was worth it, after all. To follow that siren song. To venture into the unknown, Veronyka at her side, and see what she was protecting. What she was fighting for, in her own way.


End file.
